IRONMAN 70.3 Pennsylvania Happy Valley Selected to Host 2026 North American Championship
IRONMAN® announced that the IRONMAN 70.3 Pennsylvania Happy Valley triathlon has been chosen to host the prestigious 2026 IRONMAN 70.3 North American Championship. The event returns to central Pennsylvania on Sunday, June 14, 2026, bringing with it a North American Championship title, elevated professional prize purse, and expanded age-group qualifying opportunities for the 2026 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Nice, France.
Grammy Award-Winning Band A Great Big World to Headline Benefit Concert for the State College Food Bank
The State College Food Bank is excited to announce A Great Big Fight to End Hunger, a powerful benefit concert featuring Grammy Award-winning band A Great Big World, proudly presented by Valhalla Business Advisors. The event will take place Monday, September 8, 2025, at 7:30 PM at The State Theatre in downtown State College.
Happy Valley Fall 2025: The Love Boat Semester at the ChatGPT Inflection Point
The curtain is going up this weekend, and the audience has arrived. Fifty thousand students. Parents and alumni. Visitors from every corner of the globe. Sidewalks pulse, cranes stretch the skyline, and Saturday’s kick off bar crawl starts at noon will hum with thousands wearing the same Line Leap t-shirt. This is the kickoff to fall in Happy Valley — our in-season.
The View from Number Two: Promise, Peril, and Joy in the Journey
Penn State football hasn’t seen a number this small next to its name this early for a very long time.
The Nittany Lions open the 2025 season ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press preseason poll, a first for the program, which last reached the two-spot in October of 2017, only to lose it weeks later in Columbus. In terms of the preseason, State has not been rated this highly since the ill-fated 1999 team began the year ranked third. Perhaps even more striking than the ranking itself is the number of first-place votes awarded to the Lions (23), only two shy of No. 1 Texas! This show of faith from the nation’s voters that James Franklin’s squad belongs near the top of college football is both a compliment and a burden.
Maker Faire Happy Valley: Where Curiosity Meets Community
Happy Valley has always been a place where people turn ideas into reality — where curiosity is encouraged, creativity is valued, and making things with your own hands still matters. This September, that spirit will be on full display at Maker Faire Happy Valley, a two-day celebration of invention, learning, and community connection.
At the heart of it all are Discovery Space and The Rivet, two organizations that believe opportunities to explore and create should be open to everyone.
True Grit, Real Glory—Penn State’s Adaptive Athletes Redefine What It Means to Compete
Saturday night, in a chandeliered ballroom of the Nittany Lion Inn, something quietly revolutionary happened.
While stories from Joe Paterno’s storied 1966 recruiting class flowed with ease and humor—Hall of Famer Lydell Mitchell, Chuck Burkhart, Moose Koegel, and Grammy Award-winning songwriter Mike Reid shared laughter, legacy, and lessons—the night’s true heartbeat belonged to a new generation of Penn Staters. A generation of athletes whose names you might not know yet, but whose courage and grit are writing the next chapter of Penn State history.
The Torch Is Now Theirs—And They’re Carrying It Boldly
In a time when college athletics are shifting rapidly—more professional than amateur, more transactional than transformational—it’s easy to forget the foundations that once made college sports a proving ground not just for talent, but for character.
It’s easy, that is, unless you’re Sue Paterno or Dana Dokmanovich Harris.
Foundations: Building a Penn State Sports Legacy
At the Nittany Lion Inn | Saturday, July 26 at 7 PM
What does the name Mike Reid mean to you?
Grammy Award-winning songwriter. Concert pianist. Penn State All-American. NFL Pro.
On July 26, he returns to where it all began—for one unforgettable night.
Be entertained by Penn State’s own Mike Reid — the embodiment of the “Grand Experiment.”
Teammates for Life—and the Power of Showing Up
Charlene Morett-Curtiss—Penn State legend, two-time Olympian, and lifelong mentor—joined us for our first Connecting the Dots Community Conversation.
